Problems w/ radio pagers?

[aspartz]

I'm beginning to wish that there was a viable alternative to Motorola for VHF pagers. A department north of me recently had a dose of modern economics from the big "M". They issued a new Minitor IV to a new member. Within a week, the dog had gotten to it and chewed off the knobs. I accept that this is not a warranty repair, however they got worse news that that -- They were told that the pager could not be repaired due to a lack of repair/spare parts. This was not the local vendor, this was Motorola corp. The only solution offered was to replace the know good IV with a rev 1.0 (also big and heavy) Minitor V. All this was at full price of course. After a number of contacts and threats of letters to FireHouse etAl, Motorola was able to find two knobs in a parts bin somewhere.

Now I just got the same treatment. One of my rookies slipped on the ice and fell onto his band new M IV. It just came back from service. They found impact damage inside, a physically broken speaker and a cracked IC. The speaker is the same as in a M III, but the IC is no longer available.

IS anyone else getting the same run around from their local vendors or Motorola?

ARS

[Tvov]

I have heard that Motorola is dropping the MIVs because of so many problems, and they are going to MV, which is actually similar to the MIIs! That may be why you are having so much trouble getting parts for the MIVs. This is just scuttlebutt/rumor, so I have no idea how true it is.

We only had a few MIVs, and now guys are already getting the MV. A lot of my dept (myself included) still have MIIs, and they work fine with few problems.

[ClydeG19]

I carried a Minitor 2 and let me tell you it took a beating. Some guys had Minitor 4's, but the concensus was that the 2's were the best.

[BamaFireMedic]

We carry Minitor V's. We have gave great consideration to going to Alpha Numeric Pagers. When you get the page it gives you the address and directions to the call. We will probably change to those next year. The cool thing is that it works everywhere. I live in a real rural area and I have a alpha numeric pager for the hazmat team. I have never missed a call. If I had to pick the best pager I have ever owned I would have to say it was a Minitor 2

[hotpig]

We have been junking the 4 since our guy can not get parts for it. He has been salvaging our old 2 for years but I think that is coming to a end.

[kyfirefreak]

We have some 4's that worked like crap, but never had an issue getting repairs done. We use Mobilcom in Cincinnati to do our repairs, they are great to work with.

I have a 5 that i love & never had an issue yet only had it about 4 months. I started out with the brick, a Minitor 1, now that thing took a beating before i got it, & it kept going, hell it still works!

[E.Ritz]

There is another company that makes voice pagers (actually 2) but they don't hold up as well. I have 30 NOVA pagers issued to a Rescue Squad, I've had problems with almost half at some time or another. They are easy to get parts for though. I don't think they would hold up to the fire service.

[hotpig]

Originally posted by kyfirefreak
We have some 4's that worked like crap, but never had an issue getting repairs done. We use Mobilcom in Cincinnati to do our repairs, they are great to work with.

I have a 5 that i love & never had an issue yet only had it about 4 months. I started out with the brick, a Minitor 1, now that thing took a beating before i got it, & it kept going, hell it still works!

We still have a Minitor 1 in my station. Unlike the 4, it works every time 911 pages. I have a hard time getting out of the station because a lot of the Volunteers call asking what 911 paged us out for.:soap:

[firemedic21]

Had a minitor 4 at one point. Worked fine for a while and the started falsing out constantly. was to the point that i was missing pages . got a minitor 2 and never had another problem. tried the minitor 5 and loved it just wish that they were not so expensive, then we could get ones for the whole dept

[DScottHewitt]

Originally posted by firemedic21
Had a minitor 4 at one point. Worked fine for a while and the started falsing out constantly. was to the point that i was missing pages . got a minitor 2 and never had another problem. tried the minitor 5 and loved it just wish that they were not so expensive, then we could get ones for the whole dept

County provided ours. Cheaper that way. Traded in IVs for Vs. Send them fifteen IVs, get fifteen Vs back. Look forward to using the "play back the last sixteen hits" feature for evaluations in EMT class. Make it noisier when the students are trying to concentrate.....


Scott

:alien: